1998-12-21 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- Amid the briefing books and budget projections, Governor-elect Gray Davis may be sitting down to brush up on the works of Richard Scarry and the Brothers Grimm.

Davis has said finding ways to have California children read well will be the "primary, if not exclusive" focus of the first 90 days of his administration. So much interest is there in early reading that aides say the new governor may take the campaign into schools and read to children himself.

He also promises to call a special session of the Legislature in January to deal only with education.

"I am determined to take this opportunity to pass legislation which will increase the likelihood that every child will be reading by the end of Grade 3, to make the schools accountable for the performance of their students and to give teachers the tools they need to do justice to these children," Davis recently told reporters.

His single-minded focus is the result of a decline in test scores and disclosures that a record number of California college students are in remedial math and English classes. Last spring's STAR test, which measures students' achievement, showed only 22 percent of the state's third-graders reading above the national average.

On December 10, the state Board of Education approved a new reading formula that reintroduces phonics as the primary way California students learn to read.

Phonics -- sounding out words, paying attention to correct spelling, and being drilled in the mechanics of reading -- had been replaced a decade ago by a whole-language approach, in which children read a variety of literature and may only figure out words through context.

Because of the change, many of the state's teachers are not trained in the phonics method.

One of the ideas springing from the Davis transition group on education is to hold a summer boot camp for new and current teachers to train in phonics.

"I think that is something you could see as soon as this next summer," said former state Senator Gary Hart, Davis' Cabinet-level adviser on education.

"There are a lot of things that need to be done, and they all go hand in hand," she said. "You can't just say we're going to do phonics now and see an immediate effect."

Hutto, whose organization was one of Davis' biggest financial contributors, said teachers need better schools, textbooks and equipment to go along with their training.

Davis also promised more spending on textbooks during the campaign, but recent reports that the state could see as much as a $1 billion shortage next year may postpone some of his spending initiatives.

California will become the latest of several states to try to get its children reading competently by the end of third grade. In Texas, the program is making substantial progress, said Robin Gilchrist, Texas' assistant commissioner for statewide initiatives.

"For the past two years, we have seen increases in scores at the third and fourth grades," she said. "Every year something more is introduced and we will see growth and achievement."

Texas has many challenges that California faces, including a diverse student population and a large number of school districts.

"In such a big state it is sometimes hard to let everyone know what you are doing," Gilchrist said.

Texas also must contend with integrating a large Spanish-speaking population. Gilchrist said Texas is allowing Spanish-speaking students to learn and test in their native language while also learning English.

A test of English proficiency is taken by all students who do not speak English as their first language. Gilchrist said those children are brought into an English class as soon as they are ready.

Gilchrist said some kind of standard test was critical to monitoring the success of the programs and the students' progress.

Recent studies have shown that students who are not reading at their grade level by the end of third grade can easily fall further behind to the point of illiteracy.

But Hart said California must be careful not to focus only on the elementary school level. Recent STAR test results showed the greatest decline in reading levels at the high school level.

"All teachers have to be aware of these issues," he said. "It is not enough to rely on English teachers who only see students for a limited time. We need math and social studies teachers to be aware of these issues as well."